Tag "United States"

The project, developed and owned by Juhl Energy, is among the first of its kind in the country to pair wind and solar on the same site.
Other customer prospects include cooperatives and municipally owned power providers in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.
Electricity generated by wind-solar hybrids gets transmitted directly to distribution grids of utilities or companies.
Global Market Insights predicts hybrid solar wind storage projects will increase 4 percent in the United States by 2024, becoming a $1.5 billion market internationally.
Selling the renewable credits prohibits Lake Region from claiming it as a green project, but that turned out to be an acceptable tradeoff in return for greater cost savings, Norrbom said.
Lake Region CEO Tim Thompson said the project lowers costs to ratepayers and “gives us a local renewable energy source with the wind and solar production that will tie into the local distribution grid we already own.” The co-op can only produce electricity for up to 5 percent of its generation demand, he said, but the wind hybrid project does not put Lake Region near that threshold.
“We’re trying to help our members save money, be renewable and be good stewards of the environment.” One barrier to further adoption of wind-solar hybrids has been the rules and tariffs that regulate electricity in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. marketplace, said Beth Soholt, executive director of Clean Grid Alliance, which promotes wind and clean energy.
“Wind and solar pair well together because solar produces during the day and wind is more of a nighttime source.
Greater economies of scale would bring even more savings for ratepayers.
The problem is many cooperatives and municipal-owned electric companies have contracts with their generation and transmission cooperatives or utilities limiting self-generated electricity to 5 percent of their demand.

By Steve Calandrillo In my research on daylight saving time, I have found that Americans don’t like it when Congress messes with their clocks.
In an effort to avoid the biannual clock switch in spring and fall, some well-intended critics of DST have made the mistake of suggesting that the abolition of DST – and a return to permanent standard time – would benefit society.
DST saves lives and energy and prevents crime.
A meta-study by Rutgers researchers demonstrated that 343 lives per year could be saved by moving to year-round DST.
Darkness is also a friend of crime.
Moving sunlight into the evening hours has a far greater impact on the prevention of crime than it does in the morning.
This is especially true for crimes by juveniles, which peak in the after-school and early evening hours.
Energy would be saved.
Under standard time, the sun rises earlier, reducing morning energy consumption, but only half of Americans are awake to be able to use the sun.
Avoiding clock switches improves sleep.

For U.S. shale companies, 2019 will see a boost in production and a decrease in capital spending, according to analysis by Rystad Energy.
After analyzing fourth quarter 2018 earnings reports from 45 U.S. shale operators, Rystad found that, on average, companies planned on 15 percent growth in oil production while cutting capital spending by five percent.
However, oil supermajors ExxonMobil and Chevron plan on spending more this year on the heels of strong 4Q 2018 earnings propelled by Permian production.
“Earnings and guidance confirm that most U.S. shale operators aim to moderate drilling and completion activity this year, prioritizing cost discipline over aggressive growth,” Rystad Energy partner Artem Abramov said in a statement emailed to Rigzone.
Abramov added that an average of five percent growth is based upon just a handful of shale operators anticipating double-digit oil production additions compared to 4Q 2018.
“In fact, a number of shale players estimate a decrease in oil output versus 4Q 2018,” he said.
However, five percent growth for all of 2019 compared to 4Q 2018 would still equal 10 percent growth between 4Q 2018 and 4Q 2019.
“If this growth rate is representative for the entire 9.5 million barrels per day oil output currently achieved in the Lower 48 states excluding Gulf of Mexico, we are then talking about nearly 1 million barrels per day of oil production growth from the U.S.,” said Abramov.

Al Gore has launched an environmental justice tour with a visit to poor areas of Alabama – and warned that already dire conditions are set to worsen because of climate change.
“This looks like the civil rights movement never took,” Barber said, staring down at the patchwork of sewage at his feet and walking around the brown liquid taking up much of the street.
Gore asked him how many times it had to be pumped.
“And with climate change it has only gotten worse.” A sewage truck comes by every three days to pump out the mess, Meanes explained.
Her great-grandchildren ran toward the chain-link fence, trying to play in the brown liquid, but Holcombe shooed them away.
“Nobody cares about us,” she told Barber and Gore.
“We’re going to try to get help,” Gore said.
Holcombe has congenital heart disease.
Gore said the area needed a systemic solution – not emergency stop-gaps like sewage trucks.
Before Means goes back into his house, he told the Guardian he was leaving his home in Hayneville but was unsure where he will go.

(Reuters) – Pioneer Natural Resources Co, one of the largest U.S. shale producers, plans to slow its production growth and spending in 2019, Chief Executive Timothy Dove said on Thursday, even as U.S. output has hit all-time highs.
The Irving, Texas-based company provided the outlook after reporting earnings that fell short of expectations due to losses related to hedging, as oil prices unexpectedly crashed in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Pioneer’s oil and gas production is set to rise 15 percent this year, less than the increase of about 20 percent in the prior two years.
The company produces roughly 181,000 bpd in the Permian, or about 5 percent of the region’s roughly 3.8 million bpd.
The Permian is the nation’s largest shale field.
Capital expenditure is expected to fall by 11 percent, or about $350 million, in the coming year.
Pioneer’s shares were down $4.52, or 3.1 percent, at $141.43.
The stock has lost 34 percent of its value since its 12-month closing high of $212.31 in May 2018.
The company had about an $85 million loss for removing hedges on 2019 production, analysts at Jefferies Group LLC said in a note on Thursday.
Pioneer’s fourth-quarter capital expenditures of $1.03 billion were higher than Wall Street estimates of about $850 million, analysts at Houston investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt, & Co said in a note to clients.

Despite recent low crude prices and a significant drop in the DrillingInfo rig count during January, the giant Permian Basin of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico continues to expand its role as the main driver of energy growth in North America.
In just the past week, we have seen the following significant events that are attributable all or in part to what has become the world’s second most-productive oil and gas resource: A driver of upstream and midstream profits – Both ExxonMobil and Chevron beat analyst expectations with their 4th quarter earnings announcements, driven mostly by their upstream and midstream developments in the Permian.
Driven by its Permian drilling, Chevron’s oil and natural gas production rose to an all-time high as the company produced a record 3 million barrels of oil per day (bopd) during the 4th quarter.
A driver of downstream expansion and acquisitions – Early last week, Exxon also broke ground on a major expansion of its Beaumont refinery, a project that will add the capability of processing an additional 250,000 bopd and make it the largest refinery in the country.
This purchase gives Chevron an additional 110,000 bopd of capacity to refine its own light sweet crude.
A driver of record domestic production – In its new Annual Energy Outlook released on January 24, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) now projects in its reference case that domestic crude oil production will rise to more than 15 million bopd by 2022, years before previous projections, and will remain above 14 million bopd through the year 2040.
This basin includes many prolific tight oil plays with multiple layers, including the Bone Spring, Spraberry, and Wolfcamp, making it one of the lower-cost areas to develop.”
Meanwhile, the EIA’s “High Resource and Technology” case projects U.S. domestic production to grow to an even more impressive 20 million bopd by the year 2040.
This month, the EIA projects that the Permian Basin alone will put that much crude onto the market.
Amazing.

For savvy concertgoers (think, more Whitney Port, less Fyre Festival ticket holders), there’s a lot more to think about pre-festival than which boho-chic outfits to pack for the experience.
Maintaining a sense of wellness in that environment requires a certain amount of research and mindfulness.
But, big questions remain, like what to eat, what to drink, and how to protect the ears for years of music festivals to come.
And if you follow specific diet plan, finding nourishment can be challenging, to say the least.
“I will always ask for extra herbs or even salsa to get more veggies in,” she says.
“One of the main root causes of low energy and hunger is dehydration,” Shapiro says.
“The heat can also intensify the effects of alcohol, making it difficult to accurately assess tolerance.” What’s that?
Yes, you should keep your hearing in mind.
But one thing that’s often overlooked is actually pretty important—especially for the occasion at hand: protecting the very body part that allows you to hear and enjoy all the music.
Doing so is a great way to stay optimally healthy so you can enjoy music festival season for years to come.

smell a rat It’s getting harder and harder to reconcile Punxsutawney Phil’s Groundhog Day predictions with the realities of climate change.
As the planet warms and winters become increasingly and predictably shorter, America’s favorite rodent continues to see his shadow in blatant disregard for scientific consensus.
We were as shocked as you surely are about the groundhog king’s transgressions.
One Grist staffer lashed out in anger, calling Phil a beaver despite the fact that groundhogs are better described as giant squirrels — the words of someone clearly experiencing unspeakable hurt.
What about General Beauregard Lee?
Are all of our trusted fluffy meteorologists just underground agents of climate denial?
In the true spirit of investigative reporting, we dug through tens of years-old local news articles to bring you a definitive list of which cute clairvoyants can — and cannot — be trusted.
Rufus the Mountain Beaver: Deforestation fan Groundhogs are exclusively an East Coast thing — but, in true West Coast fashion, there’s a deceptively crunchy and equally heinous version living in Washington state.
Despite having no real credentials, Lee has been awarded a “Doctor of Weather Prognostication” from a professor at the University of Georgia and a “Doctor of Southern Groundology” from Georgia State University.
Staten Island Chuck: Pro-public transit revolutionary Not everyone agrees with Staten Island Chuck’s rather extreme methods, like when he bit then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg during a Groundhog Day celebration.

The World Bank Group will invest $200 billion globally to 2025 to help developing countries move to a low-carbon future.
“An immense energy deficit and crumbling infrastructure makes Sub-Saharan Africa fertile ground for solar.” As of November 2018, the firm says that Africa built 74 megawatts of on site solar power and that it is cheaper than what a centralized, grid-connected system could have provided.
The World Bank has loaned billions of dollars to dozens of projects in Africa.
The United States Power Africa initiative, which began in 2013, is providing $7 billion.
Most of that is getting used to build transmission lines to deliver power via a centralized system.
The greater focus on electrification has delivered results: The World Bank says that the number of people getting access to electricity is exceeding the population growth, in Sub-Saharan Africa.
It also says that more than 700,000 on site solar systems have been installed.
By 2050, Africa is expected to grow from 1.1 billion people to 2 billion, with a total economic output of $15 trillion — money to be targeted to infrastructure and specifically energy and transportation.
Still, the U.S. has the $7 billion Power Africa initiative established in 2013 and the African Growth and Opportunity Act of 2000, which has given Africans duty-free access to thousands of U.S. products.
As Africa continues to make headway, energy markets will open.

Now, residents are working to hold Governor Brown to task over what they see as the most pressing climate issue facing the state: the proposed Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal and its Pacific Connector Gas pipeline.
Thousands, Including Several Tribes, Voice Opposition Gov.
Klamath Tribal Council Chairman Don Gentry told DeSmog that the tribal council believes “we need to exhaust every administrative opportunity that we have to express our opposition to the project and hopefully the permits and licensing will be denied.”
Klamath Tribal Council is not alone.
Support from the fossil fuel industry spans the length of the pipeline, from Colorado to Oregon.
The firm has gone so far as to have Oregon state legislation proposed officially on its behalf, which would have blocked local governments from interfering with fossil fuel infrastructure projects, such as Jordan Cove.
This legislation was in response to a 2017 county “Community Bill of Rights” ballot initiative in Coos County, Oregon, the site of the proposed Jordan Cove LNG terminal.
In 2018, Jordan Cove LNG gave $216,500 to campaigns, according to the Oregon Secretary of State website.
But it wasn’t enough to stop the election of some politicians, like new state Senator Jeff Golden, from campaigning and winning on an explicit platform to oppose the project.
Also on the horizon are the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement coming as soon as Feb. 15 and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality decision on whether to grant the project a Clean Water Act permit, expected Sept. 25.

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